Bill Gates Warns of Expending Too Much Effort on "Cute" Green Technologies

Microsoft founder Bill Gates (News - Alert) apparently doesn't think much of small-scale green technologies such as home solar panels, “small wind” (personal wind turbines) or other kinds of microgeneration. He may not dislike them, but he refers to them as merely “cute.” Ouch. According to Gates, developed nations need to spend more money on research and development to make energy cheaper for developing nations, since every green energy improvement developed nations make is offset by the dirty energy burned in the developing world.

Gates delivered the keynote speech at the Wired Business Conference 2011 in New York City where he addressed energy efficiency, but he stressed that it needs to be done on a wide – think global – scale. He said the only real efficiency that comes from using energy-efficient technologies like LED lights, solar panels, and heating-efficient buildings, is economic, not environmental, reported PC Mag.

“Can we, by increasing efficiency [technologies], deal with our climate problem?” Gates asked. “The answer there is basically no, because the climate problem requires more than 90 percent reduction of CO2 emitted, and no amount of efficiency improvement is enough,” he noted.

“With the CO2 problem, even if the rich world did very erratic things it doesn't come anywhere near to solving the problem. You have to help the rest of the world get energy at a very reasonable price to get anywhere,” said Gates.

Instead of spending money on subsidizing old energy technologies, Gates said the role of the rich world is to talk about long-term problems and fund the research and development to find solutions. But there's a Catch-22 here, says PC Mag, given that most Americans don't grow their own food or have any first-hand knowledge of how climate change affects things like food production.

“The problem is that rich countries can afford to overpay for things. We can afford to overpay for medicine, energy, we can rig our food prices,” he said. “Our politicians aren't told that we're suffering because we're overpaying for things.”

According to Gates, over 90 percent of energy subsidies worldwide end up paying for old, dirty technology instead of badly needed research and development. “You can buy as much old technology as you want, but you won't get breakthroughs which only come out of basic research.”